Market sentiment is turning downbeat as investors become increasingly concerned about US economic growth stalling after President Donald Trump kicked off a tariff war and continued to cut spending while shaking up decades-old geopolitical relationships. That’s a remarkable shift in mood less than two months into Trump’s presidency, which was once welcomed on Wall Street sending stocks, Bitcoin and the dollar higher.
“We’ve gone from animal spirits to what are the odds of a recession,” said Gina Bolvin, president of Bolvin Wealth Management Group. “This is a headline-driven market; one that could change in an hour. Sit tight. Buckle up. We finally have the correction we were waiting for, and long-term investors will be rewarded again.”
Despite the global risk-off mood, mainland Chinese investors bought an unprecedented amount of Hong Kong stocks on Monday, continuing to boost their holdings amid a tech-driven rally this year. The stocks have been on a tear this year, thanks to the emergence of an artificial-intelligence model from startup DeepSeek that was considered a game-changer in the industry.In the US Monday, the S&P 500 dropped 2.7%. The Nasdaq 100 lost 3.8%. In the megacap space, Tesla Inc. sank 15% while Nvidia Corp. drove a closely watched gauge of chipmakers to the lowest since April.
The yield on 10-year Treasuries slid nine basis points to 4.21% on Monday on bets that an economic slowdown would force the Federal Reserve to slash interest rates.. The dollar rose 0.2%. About 10 high-grade companies delayed US bond sales on Monday. Oil fell to a six-month low.
The latest turmoil on Wall Street marks an abrupt about-face for markets, where the dominant driver of the last few years had been the surprising resilience of the US economy even as growth weakened overseas. That’s shaking the aura of economic and market exceptionalism that has dominated for more than a decade.
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